But its chairman Josef Fendt said last week that the track had turned out to be far faster than its designers ever intended it to be, and Olympic officials shortened it to slow speeds and raised safety barriers to keep lugers on the track if they crashed.

WHISTLER, British Columbia – Olympic officials continue to say that the luge track where a young slider from the Republic of Georgia was killed Friday is safe, but they announced a highly unusual change to slow the speeds on the track, which is the fastest in the world, as well as alterations to keep lugers on the track should they crash.

Despite those assertions, Olympic officials took unusual measures on Saturday to shorten the course by 190 yards to slow the speeds, and they altered the run to keep lugers on the track should they crash.